"The decision has been made to restart the plant. We will start grinding Oct. 12," Plainview BioEnergy general manager Chuck Fryar said on Friday.

Fryar said the facility will use as much local corn and milo as is available.

"What we will do is blend corn and milo together to give us what we need," he said.

Plainview BioEnergy, which was built by Dallas-based White Energy and began operations in April 2008, announced in January that it would temporarily shut down. Fryar said at the time the decision was made "due to poor ethanol profit margins."

He further explained that the general slowdown in the economy, combined with the fact that the winter generally is a time when people don’t drive, led to decreased profit margins.

At the corporate level, on May 7 White Energy and its subsidiaries in Plainview, Hereford and Russell, Kan., filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

When the Plainview plant shut down operations, Fryar said the staff would remain on salary until the plant reopened.

He said in August the facility had been able to maintain that stance, although some employees found other jobs rather than wait out the bankruptcy process.

On Friday, Fryar said he had been able to refill the positions that had become vacant, and those new employees would undergo a week-long training program.

In the meantime, he said, he and his crews are in the process of getting the plant ready to resume production.